'Most Boulder thing ever': Tube to Work Day continues to grow

Jeff Kagan laughs after crashing through rough water during the 7th Annual Tube to Work Day in Boulder, Colorado July 15, 2014.
(Mark Leffingwell / Daily Camera)

At the rate Tube to Work Day continues to grow, pretty soon Boulder Creek will have morning traffic jams.

About 40 people donned business suits over their wetsuits Tuesday morning and plunged into the cold waters for the seventh annual Tube To Work Day, twice the number of people who braved the creek last year.

“It's awesome to see how much it's grown,” said Lana Carmichael, who tubed to work for the second year. “It's a unique way to get to work.”

The event started with two friends tubing to work on the creek in 2008. Since then, more and more people have been coming out, and the city of Boulder even provided a breakfast station at Broadway for the tubers for the second year in a row.

“Tube to Work Day is about alternative commuting and having a good time on the water,” said co-founder Jeff Kagan. “It brings people together.

“It is the best commute ever.”

Many first-time tubers are invited by friends who tried it in the past. This year, Carmichael brought her friend Krystal Chamberlain.

“She said it was really fun,” Chamberlain said. “I haven't tubed on Boulder Creek before, so I might as well try it at this event.”

Carmichael and Chamberlain decided to bring a tandem tube to see if having two people would steady them a bit as they hit the creek.

“We're just going to wing it and see what happens,” Carmichael said.

After getting out at Broadway at the breakfast station, Carmichael concluded the tandem tube ride was a success.

“We were cruising,” she said.

Some of the tubers went to extraordinary lengths to hit the creek.

Andrew Bleeda actually lives and works in Westminster, but made his way up to Boulder on the bus to participate in his first Tube to Work Day.

“I've added a bus component to Tube to Work Day,” Bleeda said. “It's definitely all about the alternative transportation.”

Cory Katuna recently graduated from college and started working, so she also was participating in her first Tube to Work Day.

“I just was never working so I couldn't tube to work,” Katuna said. “This is my christening.”

And Katuna said she will definitely be back.

“It was the most Boulder thing ever,” Katuna said. “It was so ridiculously awesome. I will never miss another one of these again.”

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